US Patent and Trademark Office

Stories

Supreme Court declines Google challenge to patent office review policy

Defends the settled expectations policy

The Supreme Court declined on Oct. 19 to hear Google's challenge to a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office policy that makes it harder to get older patents reexamined. The decision leaves in place a rule that has cut the share of accepted review petitions from 65% to 37%.

Updated Oct 20

Average drug patent count triples since 1990, JAMA study finds

Rule Changes

As of October 2026: Grants the patents studied and faces calls to tighten scrutiny of secondary claims

The average FDA-approved drug now carries more than three times as many patents as it did in 1990. A JAMA study of 1,981 small-molecule drugs found the mean patent count per drug rose from 2.1 to 6.9 between 1990 and 2019.

Updated Oct 11